IDOT apologizes for map

O'Hare ring road plan a `mistake,' but 2 towns not buying

A map showing a highway that would cut a swath through Elk Grove Village and Bensenville was both erroneous and a major mistake, Illinois Department of Transportation officials said Tuesday.

Leaders of both suburbs said the highway--if built as indicated on the map prepared by IDOT--would destroy their communities, displacing thousands of jobs, businesses and hundreds of homes, even Bensenville's Village Hall.

According to the map, the route would follow a straight line through the two suburbs about a half-mile west of Elmhurst Road, which becomes York Road.

On Tuesday, IDOT apologized for issuing the map as part of the state's proposed 2007-2013 highway-improvement program. IDOT said the map didn't reflect the precise route, which is still undetermined.

Much of the proposed highway would actually run along O'Hare's western edge east of York Road, not through the two communities, IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey said.

"The map did not depict any route IDOT has planned or designed or attempts to pursue," Claffey said. "It was a mistake that caused a lot of concern. ... We regret it. We have no intention of destroying these communities."

In a letter to Bensenville, IDOT said it "sincerely apologizes for any inconveniences that we may have caused" in depicting the road slicing through the towns.

But leaders of the suburbs, both strong opponents of O'Hare expansion, contend that the map signals a willingness on the part of the state and the City of Chicago to destroy the communities to benefit the airport.

"Here's our problem: They didn't say in the apology that it won't be that location," Johnson said. "There has been no retraction and no definitive statement or drawing or map that shows it in any other location. We still have the same concerns."

Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson scoffed at IDOT's explanation that the map was a mistake. He accused IDOT and Chicago of "lying, deceiving and hiding the facts from the public."

"This is no Meigs Field," he said. "They can't come into our community in the middle of the night and tear it up with big X's. We're not going to stand by and allow that to go forward. ... We will do everything in our power to protect Elk Grove Village."

The map was contained in a document IDOT sent to Bensenville last month. It was intended as advance notice to utilities regarding highway projects, Claffey said.

Planning for the ring road, as well as for the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway extension providing western access to the airport, are part of a $140 million federal project.

Chicago has pledged to relinquish a 300-foot corridor on O'Hare's western edge for most of the ring road. But the road was not in this corridor on the IDOT map.

Even with the corridor, the road will still need to cut through part of the two towns in order to link with the tollways.

Elk Grove's Johnson said the highway would have a $66.7 million financial impact on the village. This includes the loss of 22,000 jobs and elimination of more than 800 businesses in the village's business park.

The village and local school districts would lose $37.2 million in local tax revenue, he predicted.

In addition to Village Hall, Bensenville would lose a fire station, hundreds of homes and parts of three golf courses, officials said.

The exact route has been a source of dispute for at least four years.

Two years ago, Johnson unveiled a different map showing a similar path for the bypass and raised the same concerns for Elk Grove Village's business park.

IDOT officials also discounted that map, saying it was not part of an official transportation plan. They said that map, obtained at a state terrorism task force meeting, was intended for planning in the event of an evacuation.